Persistent demand — retail and institutional — has spurred Vanguard’s about-face. Since their January 2024 debut, spot Bitcoin ETFs have amassed billions in assets. Even after outflows and a decline in Bitcoin’s price, Vanguard’s biggest rival, BlackRock, has about $70 billion in its IBIT ETF alone, down from roughly $100 billion just two months ago. Vanguard’s shift, which follows a late-September report that the firm was weighing the move, opens access for more than 50 million brokerage customers, who collectively oversee over $11 trillion, to regulated crypto wrappers.